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More than six months has passed since China first banned Bitcoin, and more than three months since its Central Bank banned it for the second time. While merchant adoption has drastically slowed, Bitcoin is still traded actively in China. As our source in China has pointed out, the Chinese Bitcoin market survives in an equilibrium state of being too small to be fought officially but large enough to experience some indirect pressure from the PBOC. In this article, Zhang Weiwu explains why the Chinese are interested in virtual currencies – and what the difference is between their and Westerners’ approach to Bitcoin. from Zhang Weiwu Let me take you back to the time when my mother dusted off my high school English notebook to amuse my wife. I was 15 years old when I wrote in it, and was [...]

New in from China! Zhang Weiwu did advise us not to bother looking for action with the Chinese exchanges. They’re living on borrowed time, and the market seems to have accepted this. Not even a leaked government document can inspire any reaction in this climate. Still, Zhang says it’s worth taking a closer look and explains what the document says – and, more importantly, what it doesn’t [...]

A few days before the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) critical date, May 10th, five exchanges stated they would regulate themselves. Will this save them? Weiwu Zhang is not very optimistic. He explains what happened previously, and what it means for the situation – and why he thinks that the attempt at self-regulation is not just an act of desperation but, more importantly, a fatal misinterpretation of the Lord’s [...]

Zhang Weiwu comments on the latest news from China. He discusses how his last prediction wasn’t completely correct, but also finds the news amusing. Because in China, it’s always an issue of sizes – and this time, something doesn’t [...]

On a trip to Saigon, where he is meeting an American businessman, Zhang Weiwu watches mesmerised as April 15th rolls over the Chinese Bitcoin scene – and nothing happens. He feels vindicated in his predictions and speculates further about how the situation will unfold. To help explain, he tells the old Chinese story of a servant who taunts his master with an empty jar; the tale of a nightclub that Disappears without being banned; and the episode of how a Bitcoin exchange threated the People’s Bank of China. Bitcoin’s future in China, he concludes, will be [...]

A few days in the life of a Chinese Bitcoiner. Zhang Weiwu meets the CEO of a large exchange and is surprised to find himself in a conversation about its future. Here, he explains why the Chinese think China is the world and finds out that the biggest Chinese exchange really might shut down, while he waits for his plane to [...]

A Chinese perspective on developments in China. Our author, Zhang Weiwu, lives in China and has been active in the Bitcoin scene since 2011. Here, he explains how to understand the current rumours about the so-called ‘Bitcoin ban’ on April 15th, why not everything means what it seems to in China, and how the Chinese exchanges will comply with the [...]